My Books, writing tips and reviews

Have You Ever Wondered How to Reach your Teen and Felt Like You Were Talking to a Brick Wall…

Tangled Minds

When I was a young adult my mother said that at times she wished she could bury her children when they became teenagers and dig them up again when they reached 30. The reason is teens and young adults go through a stage where they think they have all the answers to all the questions when they don’t even know the questions. It wasn’t until I had children of my own that I understood her feelings. It wasn’t until I had children of my own and heard them say the same things to me that I had once said to my own wonderful mother. One of them being, “But I want to make my own mistakes.” Well, my mother in her infinite wisdome allowed me to do just that and some mistakes I could never fix. I in turn allowed my children to do the same and some mistakes can never be fixed. Hopefully they can be learned from so as not to be repeated.
That being said, my book Tangled Minds is taken from real life experiences, that have been embelished for the sake of the fiction story. The crime in the book happened. It happened in Gainesville Georiga and the young man went to prison for 10 years for his part. My oldest daughter started having children at 16 years old and she refused to take responsiblity for her actions. She made some very bad decisions but not as bad at the character in the book.
The book has been compared to John Steinbeck’s Mice and Men. While fiction the story contains many life’s lessons.
Tangled Minds takes the reader on a journey traveled by Brianna Van Pelt a seventeen year old teen with her entire life before her. In on split second she makes a decision that not only stays with her- it leads her to other very bad and life changing decisions which spill over into bad decisions made by her son. It brings to mind the old saying, “the sins of the fathers are revisited on the children.”
This book while fiction holds nothing back and if read with an open mind while entertaining teaches many lessons that the young need to know. If you can’t talk to your teen, or if they just tune you out buy them this book. You as the parent read it first. There are lessons for you as well. Just becasue we do all we can to teach our children morals and give them a moral compass they don’t always use it. We can’t carry that guilt. It falls on them.
Tangled Minds, bad decisions, life’s lessons